Kuwait appoints its first woman cabinet member

Political science teacher Massouma al-Mubarak was appointed today as a Cabinet minister, becoming Kuwait’s first ever female minister, the state-owned Kuwait Television said.

Al-Mubarak, a women’s rights activist and columnist, was given the planning and administrative development portfolios, the prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, was quoted as saying.

Her appointment became possible last month, when Parliament passed a law allowing women to vote and run for public office for the first time in the history of this small oil-rich state.